Wednesday, December 14, 2022

CROSSOVER MADNESS




The folks at Riffteax, in their quest for inspired garbage to mock, helped bring back into currency a near-plotless half-hour short called SANTA'S ENCHANTED VILLAGE. It was shot at two related Christmas theme parks in California and in Illinois and produced by K. Gordon Murray, famous for doing a lot of sixties kiddie features as well as for dubbing numerous Mexican fantasy-films for American audiences.  In addition to Santa Claus, the legendary characters include Merlin and Puss in Boots. Far less well known are "the Ferocious Wolf" and "Stinky the Skunk," who are doppelgangers of characters from some of those Mexican films, the best known being TOM THUMB AND RED RIDING HOOD. But since the skunk and the wolf aren't connected to those characters-- indeed, the actors' costumes only resemble the Mexican depictions in a general way-- I wouldn't say that these two anthropomorphics are crossovers as such.



ADDENDUM: I may as well note that Merlin also appears in the Mexican film SANTA CLAUS from 1959, so that's why Murray stuck the Arthurian wizard in with the jolly old elf. Though I didn't mention Merlin's presence in my review, I would consider the film a crossover for that reason. But I *don't* consider the appearance of a minor devil in the same film as constituting a crossover, because it's not THE Devil.

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